Uruguay's FTTH pushes Internet speed through the roof

Uruguay's FTTH pushes Internet speed through the roof
Details
Juan Fernandez Gonzalez | 08 July 2014
Several reports have recently shown Uruguay as being the Latin American country with the best Internet connection, and according to research by Akamai, the average speed has increased by 151% in the last 12 months, mostly thanks to Antel's fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) deployment.

Touted by Netflix as the best territory in Latin America for online video delivery, Uruguay has 350,000 homes connected to FTTH and the highest Internet speeds are currently 206% higher than a year ago.

Just in the first half of 2014, the access number has risen by 90 times, with average speeds of over 10Mbps. "This independent reports shows the speed and quality of the Internet have been improved in the country through Antel's project", said Andres Tolosa, general manager at the public telco.

Over half of Uruguay's Internet connections already belong to the public FTTH network, which allows better access to various content, especially streamed video and audio. Antel's goal is to increase its subscriber number to half a million before the end of the year, following a $500-million plan of which almost half has been already invested.

Not only speed but also penetration is what places Uruguay as the Latin American country with the best Internet infrastructure. According to the latest report from the Internet Society, Uruguay, Chile and Argentina, are the region's only countries with over 50% of Internet penetration.